Greensburg and Haviland again met on the same track last week, competing in a field of 10 teams Friday at Spearville.  The Lady Dragons’ effort was good enough to finish third with 66 points, while their counterparts from Greensburg tied Ashland for fourth at 57.  Greensburg’s boys, meanwhile, led by the 26 points of Adam Haskin, claimed sixth with 55 total points, ahead of Haviland’s 43, good enough for seventh.

   Though much of Greensburg remains abuzz over the return of President Bush to address the community’s 18 graduating seniors as part of their May 4 commencement, nine of those seniors likely heard their graduation message two weeks in advance at the forty-ninth Honor Roll Banquet, held April 21 at the GHS practice gym.

   Greensburg’s boys and girls teams both finished fourth at Ashland’s Tom Gilmore Relays April 15, while Haviland’s girls took seventh, the boys eighth on a blustery day that included wind gusts of up to 50 m.p.h.

   It was, according to Greensburg Coach Dave White, the worst first half shooting performance he can recall having ever been turned in by one of his teams.  Unfortunately the chilly offensive effort came in the first round of the state tournament last Wednesday, sending the Rangers to a 56-30 defeat at the hands of top seeded Colony Crest in Hays, ending GHS’s season at 19-6.

   Fortunately for followers of Greensburg basketball, Coach Dave White watches a lot of sports on television, particularly basketball.  It was, in fact, from a college game he viewed back in December that he got an idea for a court-length, last-second play that he put in place in Saturday night’s Sub State finals during a timeout with his team trailing Moscow 47-46 with 2.8 seconds remaining.

   Putting a 19-point loss at Macksville back on February 9 behind them, Greensburg put together a 23-point third quarter Thursday to earn a tight 53-51 Sub State win over the Mustangs to advance to Saturday night’s finals against Moscow and a chance to advance to the State Tourney in Hays.

   Both Greensburg’s girls’ and boys’ basketball teams had to settle for runner-up status in Saturday night’s Coldwater Regional when each lost in overtime, the girls falling 44-43 to Bucklin, while the Rangers came up short 60-57 in their finals match up with host South Central.

   Greensburg’s Lady Rangers battled back from a 40-29 third quarter deficit Friday night to outscore Ashland 21-6 the final eight minutes and claim a 50-46 win.  The comeback moved GHS to the Regional finals Saturday night at Coldwater against Bucklin.

Down by five midway through the second quarter and again three early in the third, Greensburg stormed back the last 12 minutes of their semi final Regional game Thursday night at Coldwater to defeat Fowler 45-32 and move on to Saturday night’s final to face host South Central.  Central downed Bucklin by 18 in the later game.

      Despite the adage it’s tough to play and defeat the same team three times in one season, Greensburg’s girls accomplished exactly that Tuesday, easily downing Fowler 68-48 at Mullinville to advance to the semi final round of Regional play Friday night at Coldwater.

   “No Cesmat, no Waters tonight,” Greensburg Coach Dave White commented to a spectator of Friday night’s girls’ game against South Gray near the east end of Mullinville’s gym.  Add 6-2 junior forward Shane Engelken still days away from seeing action on the court in recovering from a cracked bone and it was no surprise the Rangers fell to the top-ranked Rebels 77-52.

   After dismantling Ashland by 42 the previous night, Greensburg likely figured to have little trouble in disposing of Haviland Tuesday evening to claim outright possession of the regular season SPIAA League title.  Geographic rivalries, however, seldom play out by means of logic, the Rangers pulling away late for a 63-54 win at Haviland in a game that was tied with as little as four minutes to go.

   By the end of the first half Ranger guard Eric White alone had outscored Ashland, 16-15, his eventual game-high 23 points pacing the Rangers to a 73-31 win Monday night, meaning GHS had only to defeat a similarly overmatched Haviland team as The Signal went to press Tuesday night to claim the SPIAA regular season title.

   Two points.  That’s all Greensburg could muster in the second quarter at Macksville Saturday after leading by one after the first, en route to a 56-37 loss that might have left Coach Dave White wondering if his team had come into its two second quarter points via a safety, rather than basket.

   Nothing has come easy for Greensburg’s basketball team this year, the latest inconvenience being an hour delay in Coldwater Monday night waiting for a pair of last-minute replacements from Medicine Lodge to make the drive after the scheduled officiating crew failed to show.